The structure determination of intrinsic defects in 4H-SiC, 6H-SiC, and 3C-SiC by means of EPR is based on measuring the angular dependence of the 29Si/13C hyperfine (HF) satellite lines, from which spin densities, sp-hybrid ratio, and p-orbital direction can be determined over... (Read more)

Recent work has suggested that prior determinations of diffusion mechanism and point defect thermodynamics in silicon have been affected by nonequilibrium effects stemming from uncontrolled adsorption-induced suppression of a pathway for defect creation at the surface. Through silicon self-diffusion... (Read more)

The vibrational lifetimes of a range of H-related defects and interstitial O (Oi) in Si, including isotopic substitutions, are calculated from first principles as a function of temperature. The theoretical approach is explained in detail. The vibrational lifetimes of... (Read more)

The structural energetics and diffusion mechanisms of the two most important point defects in rutile TiO2, the oxygen vacancy (VO) and the titanium interstitial (TiI), are examined using the ab initio pseudopotential total-energy method. The two... (Read more)

The migration of monovacancies (V0) and self-interstitials (I) has been observed in ion-implanted low-doped float-zone silicon by variable-energy positron annihilation spectroscopy. V0 and I were created by the in situ implantation of ~20 keV... (Read more)

The electron-capture (EC) decay rate of 7Be in C60 at the temperature of liquid helium (T=5 K) was measured and compared with the rate in Be metal at T=293 K. We found that the half-life of 7Be in endohedral C60... (Read more)

By applying a new technique for dynamic nuclear polarization involving simultaneous excitation of electronic and nuclear transitions, we have enhanced the nuclear polarization of the nitrogen nuclei in 15N@C60 by a factor of 103 at a fixed temperature of 3 K and a... (Read more)

The Stark splitting of a single fourfold degenerate impurity located within the built-in potential of a metal-semiconductor contact is investigated using low temperature transport measurements. A model is developed and used to analyze transport as a function of temperature, bias voltage, and... (Read more)

Photoluminescence spectroscopy has been used to study single crystalline ZnO samples systematically annealed in inert, Zn-rich and O-rich atmospheres. A striking correlation is observed between the choice of annealing ambient and the position of the deep band emission (DBE) often detected in ZnO. In... (Read more)

The authors have calculated that fluorine substituting for oxygen gives no gap states in HfO2. This accounts for the good passivation of oxygen vacancies by F seen experimentally. Bonding arguments are used to account for why F may be the most effective passivant in ionic oxides such as... (Read more)

Two occupied native defect bands are experimentally detected in pure HfO2. The density of states of band one in the middle of the band gap reduces drastically with the Al addition, while that of band two slightly above the valence-band maximum remains rather unaffected. We attribute the... (Read more)

Based on theoretical calculations, we find that at p+ polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si)/HfO2 gates, Si interstitials are easily migrated from the electrode, forming HfSi bonds with a charge transfer to the electrode, and the resulting interface dipole raises the Fermi level... (Read more)

Nitrogen is known to reduce leakage currents and charge trapping in high-dielectric-constant gate oxides such as HfO2. We show that this occurs because nitrogen, substituting for oxygen atoms next to oxygen vacancy sites, repels the occupied gap states due to the neutral and positively... (Read more)

Muon spin depolarization rates and hyperfine decoupling curves imply the existence of a neutral muonium center to high temperatures in AlN, providing an experimental model for interstitial atomic hydrogen. This center has a hyperfine interaction close to that of the free atom, but with a small... (Read more)

Density-functional-theory calculations were performed for the unrelaxed +2 Si vacancy and +2 self-interstitial utilizing periodic boundary conditions and two different methods—the uniform background charge method and the local moment counter charge method—for circumventing the divergence... (Read more)

Sr1−3x/2LaxTiO3 perovskites exhibit large variations in radiation resistance and A-site vacancy ordering, depending on x and thermal history. In this study we use a combination of ab initio and classical simulation techniques... (Read more)

We have investigated by extended x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy the local order around Er atoms introduced by ion implantation in substoichiometric silica films prepared by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, where Si nanoclusters have been formed by different preimplantation... (Read more)

Using a combination of the local-basis ab initio program SIESTA and the activation-relaxation technique we study the diffusion mechanisms of the gallium vacancy in GaAs. Vacancies are found to diffuse to the second neighbor using two different mechanisms, as well as to the first and fourth... (Read more)

First-principles pseudopotential calculations have been performed to investigate intrinsic defects including vacancies, interstitials, antisite defects, as well as Schottky and Frenkel defects in PbFCl crystals. For the isolated vacancies and interstitials, their formation energies are critically... (Read more)

We compute within the effective-mass theory and without adjustable parameters the Stark effect for shallow P donors in Si with anisotropic band structure. Valley-orbit coupling is taken into account in a nonperturbative way and scattering effects of the impurity core are included to properly... (Read more)

First-principles calculations carried out in 3C- and 4H-SiC show that small metastable carbon clusters can be created in irradiated SiC. The metastable carbon clusters possess occupation levels in the p-type as well as in the n-type 4H-SiC. Depending on the... (Read more)

We resolve the remarkably sharp bound exciton transitions of highly enriched 28Si using a single-frequency laser and photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy, as well as photocurrent spectroscopy. Well-resolved doublets in the spectrum of the 31P donor reflect the hyperfine... (Read more)

We propose a new method for calculating optical defect levels and thermodynamic charge-transition levels of point defects in semiconductors, which includes quasiparticle corrections to the Kohn-Sham eigenvalues of density-functional theory. Its applicability is demonstrated for anion vacancies at... (Read more)

Phosphorus shallow donors having the symmetry lower than Td are studied by pulsed EPR. In diamond:P and 3C–SiC:P, the symmetry is lowered to D2d and the density of the donor wave function on the phosphorus atom exhibits a predominant p-character. In 4H–SiC:P with the site symmetry of... (Read more)

Using ab initio density-functional total energy and molecular-dynamics simulations, we study the effects of various forms of nitrogen postdeposition anneal (PDA) on the electric properties of hafnia in the context of its application as a gate dielectric in field-effect transistors. We... (Read more)

In this paper, we unambiguously re-determine the spin multiplicity of TV2a by pulsed electron nucleus double resonance technique. The TV2a center is one of the most commonly observed defects in 4H-SiC, and its origin was... (Read more)

The transient enhanced diffusion of acceptor impurities severely affects the realization of ultrahigh doping regions in miniaturized Si-based devices. Fluorine codoping has been found to suppress this transient diffusion, but the mechanism underlying this effect is not understood. It has been proposed that fluorine-impurity or fluorineâ€“native-defect interactions may be responsible. Here we clarify this mechanism combining first-principles theoretical studies of fluorine in Si and purposely designed experiments on Si structures containing boron and fluorine. The central interaction mechanism is the preferential binding of fluorine to Si-vacancy dangling bonds and the consequent formation of vacancy-fluorine complexes. The latter effectively act as traps for the excess self-interstitials that would normally cause boron transient enhanced diffusion. Instead, fluorine-boron interactions are marginal and do not play any significant role. Our results are also consistent with other observations such as native-defect trapping and bubble formation. (Read more)

Carbon vacancies (VC) are typical intrinsic defects in silicon carbides (SiC) and so far have been observed only in the form of positively charged states in p-type or semi-insulating SiC. Here, we present electron-paramagnetic-resonance (EPR) and photoinduced EPR (photo-EPR)... (Read more)

We utilize spin-dependent recombination (SDR) to observe deep level trap defects at or very near the interface of 6H silicon carbide and the SiO2 gate dielectric in SiC metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors. The SDR response is strongly correlated to SiC/SiO2... (Read more)

The carbon vacancy is a dominant defect in 4H-SiC, and the "EI5" electron-paramagnetic-resonance (EPR) spectrum originates from positively charged carbon vacancies (VC+) at quasicubic sites. The observed state for EI5, however, has been attributed to a... (Read more)

The electronic, structural, and vibrational properties of small carbon interstitial and antisite clusters are investigated by ab initio methods in 3C- and 4H-SiC. The defects possess sizable dissociation energies and may be formed via condensation of carbon interstitials, e.g.,... (Read more)

mplanted fluorine is observed to behave unusually in silicon, manifesting apparent uphill diffusion and reducing diffusion and enhancing activation of boron. In order to investigate fluorine behavior, we calculate the energy of fluorine defect structures in the framework of density functional theory. In addition to identifying the ground-state configuration and diffusion migration barrier of a single fluorine atom in silicon, a set of energetically favorable fluorine defect structures were found (FnVm). The decoration of vacancies and dangling silicon bonds by fluorine suggests that fluorine accumulates in vacancy-rich regions, which explains the fluorine redistribution behavior reported experimentally. (Read more)

The effect of vacancies on the behavior of F in crystalline Si has been elucidated experimentally for the first time. With positron annihilation spectroscopy and secondary ion mass spectroscopy, we find that F retards recombination between vacancies (V) and interstitials (I) because V and I trap F to form complexes. F diffuses in the V-rich region via a vacancy mechanism with an activation energy of 2.12Â±0.08â€‰eV. After a long annealing time at 700ÂºC, F precipitates have been observed by cross-section transmission electron microscopy which are developed from the V-type defects around the implantation range and the I-type defects at the end of range. (Read more)

Spin-lattice relaxation time (T1) and phase memory time (TM) of shallow donors in 3C-, 4H- and 6H-SiC have been measured in time domain by using pulsed EPR technique. The temperature dependence of T1 suggests that the Orbach process should be frozen at relatively high temperatures. Shallow donors in SiC are promising in attaining a sufficiently long phase memory time at temperatures much higher than Si:P. (Read more)

Hydrogen-related defects in oxygen-deficient silica, representing the material of a thermal gate oxide, are analyzed using first-principles calculations. Energetics and charge-state levels of oxygen vacancies, hydrogen, and their complexes in the silica framework are mapped out. The neutral hydrogen... (Read more)

Ab initio plane-wave-supercell calculations are performed for the neutral monovacancies in silicon, silicon carbide and diamond using ultrasoft non-normconserving Vanderbilt pseudopotentials. We study the structure, the energetics and the single-particle energy spectrum. The local symmetry, the... (Read more)

Electron paramagnetic resonance measurements on float-zone silicon implanted with protons at ∼50 K followed by heating to room temperature have revealed two signals S1a and S1b belonging to the S1 group of signals. S1a and S1b both originate from defects... (Read more)

In situ electron-spin-resonance (ESR) measurements of film growth of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) using a remote hydrogen plasma technique have been performed. The Si dangling-bond signal in a-Si:H during and after deposition has been detected, in addition to the... (Read more)

Results are reported on the paramagnetic resonance spectrum recently identified with the negatively charged state of substitutional nickel in n-type silicon. Studies were made on the presence of the spectrum in silicon with different concentrations of phosphorus doping and under various conditions... (Read more)

The electron-nuclear double-resonance spectra of interstitial 47Ti+ and 49Ti+ in silicon have been measured at 4.2 K. Spin Hamiltonians for these systems were determined and had to include hyperfine contributions of the type S3I and... (Read more)

The Si-NL29 EPR spectrum, which is associated with the positive charge state of interstitial titanium in silicon, was investigated by electron-nuclear double resonance. Hyperfine-interaction parameters of 17 shells of silicon neighbors, comprised of 214 atoms, could be determined. These parameters... (Read more)

ï»¿The dynamic process due to electron jumping among three states with different sp hybrid directions in the quasitetrahedral P4+ center [PO4]0 in a-quartz has been investigated by 10-GHz electron paramagnetic resonance, over the temperature range 40 to 400 K. The relative populations (mole fractions Æ’Ð† and Æ’Ð†Ð†) of the ground state P(Ð†) and two degenerate thermally excited states P(Ð†Ð†) were determined from the measured EPR absorption line intensity ratios and from the line positions of the averaged state P(A), respectively, in the slow and fast kinetic regions. The temperature dependence of the mole fractions has been explained by considering vibrational sublevels in the potential well describing each state. The jump rate was also obtained, via EPR absorption line-width analysis based on the Bloch equations, in both the slow and the fast regions. The characteristic parameters of the dynamic process, Le., energy separation and vibrational sublevels of the ground and excited states, and barrier height between these, have been determined.
(Read more)

Dynamic averaging due to electron jumping among three states with different sp hybrid directions in the P4+ center [PO4]0 in Î±-quartz has been studied by single-crystal electron paramagnetic resonance. The spin-Hamiltonian matrices g and Aslp for low temperature (i.e., C140 K) spectra P(Ð†) and P(â…¡) and for high temperature spectrum P(A) are reported. For each crystal site, the line positions of P(A) agree well with those derived from the matrices measured for the three states. i.e., with weighted averages including P(Ð†) and the two symmetry-related P(â…¡) spectra. (Read more)

An EPR spectrum, labeled Si-G12, is identified as arising from an isolated interstitial carbon atom in silicon. A 〈100〉 C-Si interstitialcy model is suggested for the defect in which a silicon and carbon atom pair partially share single substitutional site. Because carbon is isoelectronic with... (Read more)

EPR studies of silicon irradiated at 20.4 K and 4.2 K by 1.5 MeV and 46 MeV electrons are described. In 46 MeV irradiations the dominant defects formed appear to be divavancies and other multiple defect aggregates which liberate vacancies throughout the anneal to room temperature as they reorder, recombine, etc. For 1.5 MeV irradiations group III atoms play a vital role in p- and n-type materials in trapping interstitials and stabilizing damage. Carbon and oxygen are not effective interstitial traps at these temperatures. Evidence of limited vacancy migration during irradiation is also cited. Two distinct excited configurations of vacancy-oxygen pairs are identified as precursors to A-centre formation in n-type silicon. The kinetics for their conversion to A-centres depends strongly upon the Fermi level as does the isolated vacancy migration energy whhich is measured to be 0.18 Â± 0.02 eV for the Vï¼ charge state. The vacancy has four charge states, Vï¼‹, V0, Vï¼ and Vï¼. Kinetics for hole release from Vï¼‹ reveals an activation barrier of 0.057 eV. The concentration of Vï¼‹ at 20.4 K in boron-doped material indicates the corresponding donor level even closer to the band edge, approximately EV ï¼‹ 0.039 eV. Jahn-Teller energies for V0, Vï¼‹, and Vï¼ are estimated from stress-alignment studies and confirmed to be large. Kinetics studies for reorientation from one Jahn-Teller distortion to another are also described for each charge state.

We have observed ESR signals of negative ions in liquid helium. The linewidth and g value have been measured. Electrons injected into helium by field emission from ferromagnetic tips are shown to be polarized. We propose a new technique for the measurement of electron spin polarization. (Read more)

The stress effect in an EPR study is first treated rigorously in terms of the piezospectroscopic tensor, taking account of the local symmetry of a defect. It is found that the degree of alignment (n⊥/n∥) provides incisive information on the structure of a defect; in... (Read more)